CS855 - Futuring and Innovation (Classroom of the Future)

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Halal, in his book discussed the best forecast data ever assembled, covering the entire span of technological innovation. One of these technological innovation I found during my reviewing to the Technology’s Promise by (Halal, 2008) is Star Travel. His discussion is about the maturing of Artificial Intelligent and robotics about 2020 for unmanned space mission. I think traveling to the space for regular people will be started in the nearest future while traveling to the stars will take place later than 2020. Halal claim “Although NASA’s central role may seem to contradict the trend toward private space ventures, it may be that the Moon and Mars will then become more easily available for private enterprise. Now, Virgin Galactic project is very close to Moon trip in near future”. Halal’s discussion about space traveling is become true. Sir Richard Branson has unveiled his Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial spacecraft, paving the way for thousands of tourists to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Sir Richard teamed up with renowned aviation designer Burt Rutan to build the spacecraft, which has been five years in the making. The vessel’s maiden voyage, which could happen as early as 2011. The SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Supprisly, there are 300 clients have already paid the $200,000 ticket or put down a deposit for a seat. My point is the show how close Halal’s claim about the star travel to the reality. Sir Richard said the journey will be "100 per cent safe". I hope travelling to the star will happen in my time and I hope I would have money and time to do travel to the space.

Place watch this video:

Reference

Halal, W.E. (2008). Technologies Promise: Expert Knowledge on the Transformation of Business and Society. Hampshire, Great Britain: Palgrave McMillan

Monday, August 30, 2010

In the next 10 years, the gaming scenario would be pretty advanced. The games would mostly constitute of Virtual simulation. It would contain real people characters and their reaction and view them like a coffee table and see small-scale real people made up from light running around on that table. All this would be made possible through use of virtual reality technology. This technology gives us the ability to create a simulation which replicates much of the realism of the real world environment, while eliminating many of the associated risks and costs. That’s will offer good opportunity to create educational simulations allow students to become immersed in the learning process and assist in transforming them from passive observes of linear material, to active hands-on operators of interactive content.In other words, gaming scenarios could be designed using design principles and game technology for purposes other than entertainment such as education purposes. It may turn modern audiences into active participants by engaging them in an immersive virtual environment, relevant to the industry associated with the game.In addition, simulation-based training provides many benefits to commercial and military industries, allowing trainees to test and hone their skills in a safe virtual environment.

This picture explained the current use of 3D training simulation software for airport ground support equipment operators. The simulation allows operators to be trained, tested, and assessed in a safe, risk-free, and low cost environment. Future 3D simulator would be pretty advanced. Some of the technological issues: we need more advance of tool(s) to create more advance 3D educational simulator. These tools could be more advance high-performance scripts, animations, textures, sounds, objects, course materials, Ease implementation at every stage in the development cycle for designing, Increase flexibility, coding, debugging, and tuning applications, and Minimize learning curve and improve productivity. This technology may take 15 to 20 years before widely adopted in educational processes.

Friday, August 27, 2010

New Business Horizons, an award winning Second Life 'Full Service Developer' with offices in London and Montreal, has created the ‘Blue Horizon’ virtual business park which offers companies and organizations the opportunity to enter Second Life quickly and at minimal cost (no set up cost and low monthly rent). This enables companies to experience the environment and explore the business benefits which can range from a unique sales, marketing and PR tool to a rich medium for communication, collaboration and participation.You can find the "New Business Horizons" in Second life at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blue%20Horizon/128/128/47

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The 21st century Schools require new models of teaching, learning, and meaningful assessment. Instructional technology is one of the most exciting and significant ways to support and facilitate school reform.A key principle of Classrooms for the Future is providing teachers the necessary technology-related professional development that helps teachers change teaching practices, which would have a significant impact on the students’ learning.

Classrooms for the Future provides appropriate technology tools in classrooms for student use and provides extensive professional development and support for teachers and administrators to make sure that these technologies are effectively used.Currently students live in a digital world and our schools must adapt instruction to complement learning in today's environment. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to utilize research-based, technology-enabled instructional strategies to thrill, to inspire, and to capture the imagination of our students. Classrooms for the Future creates environments for deeper cognitive development through• inquiry,• real and relevant project-based learning, and• differentiated instruction.The overarching goals of the Classrooms for the Future are to:- Improve teaching and learning.- Change classroom practice.- Change student-teacher relationships.- Increase student engagement.- Increase student responsibility for learning.- Develop 21st century skills in students.- Increase Academic achievement.

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Saturday, August 7, 2010

One of the case studies in the Christakis book is the SDP approach to Front-End Work. Effective Front-End Work generally recognized as a critical success factor for rapid development of any new product. Christakis argues that “much of the work in the Front-End stage involves planning and decision-making by a team created to work on the project” (Christakis, 2006. P. 93). Any project should start with plan. Having clear plan will absolutely will lead for accomplish the product on time or earlier with reasonable cost. It should include the initial idea, definitions, final design approach, implementation team, etc. In addition, the SDP approach to Front-End Work should include collaboration among all the members of the project from planning to the decision making. The principle benefits from applying the application of SDP process are the capability to accomplish in short period of time, the capability of producing faster and better Front-End Master plans, faster termination of drug candidates, and the ability to provide useful information when applying the SDP process in any new project such as medical project.On of the most effective example shows how the Front-End Work was applied with SDP approach within Christakis textbook is a XY234. XY234 was a compound developed by the XYZ Pharmaceutical. The essential goal of the application of the XY234 project was to involve the interdisciplinary team in creating a Front-End Master Plan, collaboratively. Master Plan provides with business planning excellence at affordable costs. The team should be knowledgeable with all project aspects with respect to their job function.